Al-Huda
Foundation, NJ U.S.A.
the Message Continues ... 3/169
HOME - NEWSLETTERS - BOOKS - ARTICLES
Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12
Prophet Muhammad in Bible by Jamal Badwai
Those who follow the Apostle,
the unlettered Prophet, Whom
they find mentioned in their own
Scriptures, in the Torah and the
Gospel… (Holy Qu’ran: VII – 157;
Translation: Yusif Ali)
BIBLE PROPHECIES ABOUT THE
ADVENT OF MUHAMMAD
BLESSINGS OF ISHMAEL AND ISAAC
1.
Genesis 12:2-3 speaks of God’s
promise to Abraham and his
descendants before any child was
born to him.
2.
Genesis 17:4 reiterates God’s
promise after the birth of
Ishmael and before the birth of
Isaac.
3.
In Genesis, ch. 21. Isaac is
specifically blessed but Ishmael
was also specifically blessed
and promised by God to become “a
great nation” especially in
Genesis 21:13, 18.
4.
According to Deuteronomy
21:15-17 the traditional rights
and privileges of the first born
son are not to be affected by
the social status of his mother
(being a “free” woman such as
Sarah, Isaac’s mother, or a
“Bondwoman” such as Hagar,
Ishmael’s mother). This is only
consistent with the moral and
humanitarian principles of all
revealed faiths.
5.
The full legitimacy of Ishmael
as Abraham’s son and “seed” and
the full legitimacy of his
mother, Hagar, as Abraham’s wife
are clearly stated in Genesis
21:13 and 16:3. After Jesus, the
last Israelite messenger and
prophet, it was time that God’s
promise to bless Ishmael and his
descendants be fulfilled. Less
than 600years after Jesus, came
the last messenger of God,
Muhammad, from the progeny of
Abraham through Ishmael. God’s
blessing of both of the main
branches of Abraham’s family
tree was now fullfilled. But are
there additional corroborating
evidence that the Bible did in
fact foretell the advent of
prophet Muhammad?
MUHAMMAD: The Prophet Like Unto
Moses
Long time after Abraham, God’s
promise to send the long-awaited
Messenger was repeated this time
in Moses’ words.
1.
From among the Israelite’s
“brethren”, a reference to their
Ishmaelite cousins as Ishmael
was the other son of Abraham who
was explicitly promised to
become a “great nation”.
2.
A prophet like unto Moses. There
were hardly any two prophets
,who were so much alike as Moses
and Muhammad. Both were given
comprehensive law code of life,
both encountered their enemies
and were victors in miraculous
ways, both were accepted as
prophets/statesmen and both
migrated following conspiracies
to assassinate them. Analogies
between Moses and Jesus
overlooks not only the above
similarities but other crucial
ones as well (e.g. the natural
birth, family life and death of
Moses and Muhammad but not of
Jesus, who was regarded by His
followers as the Son of God and
not exclusively a messenger of
God, as Moses and Muhammad were
and as Muslim belief Jesus was).
THE AWAITED PROPHET WAS TO COME
FROM ARABIA
Deuteronomy 33:1-2 combines
references to Moses, Jesus and
Muhammad. It speaks of God (i.e.
God’s revelation) coming from
Sinai, rising from Seir
(probably the village of Sa’ir
near Jerusalem) and shining
forth from Paran. According to
Genesis 21:21, the wilderness of
Paran was the place where
Ishmael settled (i.e. Arabia,
specifically Mecca).
Indeed the King James version of
the Bible mentions the pilgrims
passing through the valley of
Ba’ca (another name of Mecca) in
Psalms 84:4-6.
Isaiah 42:1-13 speaks of the
beloved of God. His elect and
messenger who will bring down a
law to be awaited in the isles
and who “shall not fail nor be
discouraged till he have set
judgement on earth.” Verse 11,
connects that awaited one with
the descendants of Ke’dar. Who
is Ke’dar? According to Genesis
25:13, Ke’dar was the second son
of Ishmael, the ancestor of
prophet Muhammad.
MUHAMMAD’S MIGRATION FROM MECCA
TO MEDINA: PROPHECIED IN THE
BIBLE?
Habakkuk 3:3 speaks of God
(God’s help) coming from Te’man
(an Oasis North of Medina
according to J. Hasting’s
Dictionary of the Bible), and
the holy one (coming) from Paran.
That holy one who under
persecution migrated from Paran
(Mecca) to be received
enthusiastically in Medina was
none but prophet Muhammad.
Indeed the incident of the
migration of the prophet and his
persecuted followers is vividly
described in Isaiah 21:13-17.
That section foretold as well
about the battle of Badr in
which the few ill-armed faithful
miraculously defeated the
“mighty” men of Ke’dar, who
sought to destroy Islam and
intimidate their own folks who
turned -to Islam.
THE QUR’AN (KORAN) FORETOLD IN
THE BIBLE?
For twenty-three years, God’s
words (the Qur’an) were truely
put into Muhammad’s mouth. He
was not the “author” of the
Qur’an. The Qur’an was dictated
to him by Angel Gabriel who
asked Muhammad to simply repeat
the words of the Qur’an as he
heard them. These words were
then committed to memory and to
writing by those who hear them
during Muhammad’s life time and
under his supervision.
Was it a coincidence that the
prophet “like unto Moses” from
the “brethren” of the Israelites
(i.e. from the lshmaelites) was
also described as one in whose
mouth God will put his words and
that he will speak in the name
of God, (Deuteronomy 18:18-20).
Was it also a coincidence the “Paraclete”
that Jesus foretold to come
after Him was described as one
who “shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak (John 16:13)
Was it another coincidence that
Isaiah ties between the
messenger connected with Ke’dar
and a new song (a scripture in a
new language) to be sang unto
the Lord (Isaiah 42:10-11). More
explicitly, prophesies Isaiah
“For with stammering lips, and
another tongue, will he speak to
this people” (Isaiah 28:11).
This latter verse correctly
describes the “stammering lips”
of Prophet Muhammad reflecting
the state of tension and
concentration he went through at
the time of revelation. Another
related point is that the Qur’an
was revealed in piece-meals over
a span of twenty three years. It
is interesting to compare this
with Isaiah 28:10 whichspeaks of
the same thing.
THAT PROPHET- PARACLETE-
MUHAMMAD
Up to the time of Jesus (peace
be upon him), the Israelites
were still awaiting for that
prophet like unto Moses
prophecied in Deuteronomy 18:18.
When John the Baptist came, they
asked him if he was Christ and
he said “no”. They asked him if
he was Elias and he said “no”.
Then, in apparent reference to
Deuteronomy 18:18, they asked
him “Art thou that Prophet” and
he answered, “no”. (John 1: 1
9-2 1).
In the Gospel according to John
(Chapters 14, 15, 16) Jesus
spoke of the “Paraclete” or
comforter who will come after
him, who will be sent by Father
as another Paraclete, who will
teach new things which the
contemporaries of Jesus could
not bear. While the Paraclete is
described as the spirit of
truth, (whose meaning resemble
Muhammad’s famous title Al-Amin,
the trustworthy), he is
identified in one verse as the
Holy Ghost (John 14:26). Such a
designation is however
inconsistent with the profile of
that Paraclete. In the words of
the Dictionary of the Bible,
(Ed. J. Mackenzie) “These items,
it must be admitted do not give
an entirely coherent picture.”
Indeed history tells us that
many early Christians understood
the Paraclete to be a man and
not a spirit. This might explain
the followings who responded to
some who claimed, without
meeting the criteria stipulated
by Jesus, to be the awaited "Paraciete".
It was Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him) who was the
Paraclete, Comforter, helper,
admonisher sent by God after
Jesus. He testified of Jesus,
taught new things which could
not be borne at Jesus’ time, he
spoke what he heard
(revelation), he dwells with the
believers (through his
well-preserved teachings). Such
teachings will remain forever
because he was the last
messenger of God, the only
Universal Messenger to unite the
whole of humanity under God and
on the path of PRESERVED truth.
He told of many things to come
which “came to pass” in the
minutest detail meeting, the
criterion given by Moses to
distinguish between the true
prophet and the false prophets
(Deuteronomy 18:22). He did
reprove the world of sin, of
righteousness and of judgment
(John 16:8-11)
WAS THE SHIFT OF RELIGIOUS
LEADERSHIP PROPHESIED?
Following the rejection of the
last Israelite prophet, Jesus,
it was about time that God’s
promise to make Ishmael a great
nation be fulfilled (Genesis
21:13, 18)
In Matthew 21:19-21, Jesus spoke
of the fruitless fig tree (A
Biblical symbol of prophetic
heritage) to be cleared after
being given a last chance of
three years (the duration of
Jesus’ ministry) to give fruit.
In a later verse in the same
chapter, Jesus said: “Therefore,
say I unto you, The Kingdom of
God shall be taken away from
you, and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruit
thereof” (Matthew 21:43). That
nation of Ishmael’s descendants
(the rejected stone in Matthew
21:42) which was victorious
against all super-powers of its
time as prophesied by Jesus:
“And whosoever shall fall on
this stone shall be broken, but
on whomsoever it shall fall, it
will grind him to powder”
(Matthew 21:44).
OUT OF CONTEXT COINCIDENCE?
Is it possible that the numerous
prophecies cited here are all
individually and combined out of
context misinterpretations? Is
the opposite true, that such
infrequently studied verses fit
together consistently and
clearly point to the advent of
the man who changed the course
of human history, Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him). Is
it reasonable to conclude that
all these prophecies, appearing
in different books of the Bible
and spoken by various prophets
at different times were all
coincidence? If this is so here
is another strange
“coincidence”!
One of the signs of the prophet
to come from Paran (Mecca) is
that he will come with “ten
thousands of saints”
(Deuteronomy 33:2 KJV). That was
the number of faithful who
accompanied Prophet Muhammad to
Paran (Mecca) in his victorious,
bloodless return to his
birthplace to destroy the
remaining symbols of idolatry in
the Ka’bah.
Says God as quoted by Moses:
And it shall come to pass, that
whosoever will not hearken unto
my words which he shall speak in
my name, I will require it of
him. (Deuteronomy 18:19)
About the author:
Dr. Jamal Badawi was born in
Egypt where he completed his
undergraduate education. He
completed his Ph.D. from the
Indiana University and
subsequently joined the faculty
of Saint Mary’s University in
Halifax, Canada.
In addition to teaching in his
formal field of education
(Management), he has been
teaching a course on “Islamic
Religious Tradition” which is
part of the offerings of the
Religious Studies department at
the same university.
Dr. Badawi has also taught a
course on Islam at Stanford
University (USA) and gave a
series of lectures on the Quran
at Oxford University (UK).
Dr. Badawi is the author of
several works on Islam, the last
of which is ‘Gender Equity in
Islam’. He also researched,
designed and presented 352 half
hour TV programs on Islam
broadcasted from several local
cable stations and radio
stations in the US and Canada,
in addition to their use in
several countries overseas.
Audio and video copies of these
programs were made available to
users in nearly 35 countries
around the world. Sets of these
programs are included in the
library collections of several
universities.
Dr. Badawi is a member of the
Consultative Council of North
America, a member of the
Juristic Council of North
America and the founder/chairman
of the Islamic Information
Foundation, a non-profit
educational foundation
registered in Canada and the US. |
DISCLAIMER:
All material published by Al-Huda.com / And the Message Continues is the sole responsibility of its author's).
The opinions and/or assertions contained therein do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of this site,
nor of Al-Huda and its officers.